The Death of Chocolate?

Start rationing your Hershey’s and Take 5 bars now, because chocolate candy as we know it may disappear in the near future.

The Cocoa Research Association announced last month that global consumption of chocolate is increasing well beyond the rate of cocoa production, a situation it deemed unsustainable, according to the British Telegraph.

While chocolate won’t go extinct, independent groups speculate that it will become significantly more expensive in the next couple of decades, making it impossible to produce the kind of cheap chocolate products we enjoy today.

"In 20 years chocolate will be like caviar,” John Mason, executive director of the Nature Conservation Research Council, told the Independent. “It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won't be able to afford it."

However, as Popular Science notes, major chocolate manufacturers such as Hershey’s and Mars are working to genetically engineer cocoa trees to boost chocolate production.

Prices will likely increase either way, so one day we may boast to our grandchildren that candy bars cost just $1 in our day, rather than the price of a second mortgage. Naturally, they’ll assume we are delusional.

Check out MainStreet’s roundup of 10 candy bars that have already gone extinct.